Addiction to alcohol, tobacco, drugs and gambling – signs and recovery

How addiction changes the brain, warning signs, how to help someone with an addiction, and the treatments and support that lead to recovery.

Chapters on this topic

Wanting, relief, shame, and the next cue

The Glass After Dinner – Raghav, fifty-one, runs a hardware shop in Nashik. He never drank in the mornings, he told himself, and he never missed a delivery. But…
The Cigarette Behind the Hostel – Aisha, nineteen, started vaping at a friend's party in her first year of college in Pune. It looked harmless and tasted of mango. Within…
Night Games, Empty Mornings – Karan, fifteen, from Jaipur, once loved cricket and drawing. Over a year, an online game took over. He played until three in the morning,…
Pills for Sleep, Pills for Nerves – Mrs Dorothy Pereira, sixty-eight, widowed in Goa, was given a sleeping tablet after her husband died. It helped at first. Over two years she…
The Brother Nobody Mentions – Tomas, twenty-six, lived in Lisbon with his parents and his younger sister Inês. His older brother Rui used heroin, and the family had spent…
Rafi, The Third Excuse – Rafi told his sister the late trains were the reason. Then the stomach. Then the office. The bottles were in the spare tyre well.…